This invention relates to gaming peripherals for gaming machines such as slot machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to slot reels as gaming peripherals for gaming machines.
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to or serve as part of a gaming machine such as a slot machine. These devices provide gaming features that define or augment the game(s) played on the gaming machine. Some examples of these devices are slot reels, lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine. Often, a number of devices are grouped together in a separate box that is placed on top of the gaming machine. Devices of this type are commonly called a top box.
Typically, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices. The features of a given device, including slot reels, are usually controlled by a xe2x80x9cmaster gaming controllerxe2x80x9d within the gaming machine. For example to control a slot reel during a game, the master gaming controller might perform many different operations including instructing a stepper motor on the slot reel to spin and then stop at a certain position, instructing lights on the slot reel to go on and off in various patterns, or instructing a speaker connected to the slot reel to emit various sound patterns. For the master gaming controller to perform these operations, connections from the slot reel are wired directly into some type of electronic board (e.g., a xe2x80x9cback planexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cmother boardxe2x80x9d) containing the master gaming controller.
The components of a slot reel might include a reel of certain size, a reel strip indicating positions on the reel, a position sensor, a stepper motor, tampering sensors, a back light and an effects light. Parameters and operation features for each of these components must be known to the master gaming controller to operate a particular slot reel. The required information is incorporated into software and stored in some type of memory device on the master gaming controller. This slot reel specific software operates the features of the device during a game. Typically, the software is executed by a microprocessor located on the master gaming controller. As an example, to operate a slot reel, the development of the software for the master gaming controller may consider information such as the moment of inertia of the slot reel, the number of positions on the reel strip, the type of stepper motor, features of the stepper motor, signals that correspond to each feature on the stepper motor, and the response time of the stepper motor.
Traditionally, the master gaming controller has performed all game functions including the calculation of the game outcome, coin handling, communications with external devices, lighting control, operation of the slot reels, etc. for the slot machine. As the slot machine has evolved, the features offered to players have become more complex and the potential combinations of gaming devices available to a gaming machine has increased. For example, video animations, combined with digital audio have been added to the basic game play of the spinning reel slot machine. To execute these complex game features and perform all of the game functions, a microprocessor with significant computational capabilities is required. Further, to accommodate all of the gaming devices within the gaming machine, the motherboard containing the microprocessor must have the necessary circuitry and wiring needed to communicate with the all of the devices operated by the master gaming controller. In the past instead of designing one motherboard that could accommodate communications with all of the potential gaming devices, a number of different motherboards were designed, each accommodating communications with some subset of the available gaming devices.
Disadvantages of the current slot machine architecture include the following. First, the number of types of motherboards needed to accommodate all of the potential combinations of gaming devices has become large. Second, the computational capabilities of the motherboard needed to drive all the devices has become large. Third, when devices are added to augment the features of the gaming machine or when devices are replaced for maintenance the steps necessary to rewire the device onto the motherboard and load the appropriate software onto the motherboard can be time consuming and require significant shutdown time for the gaming machine. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide slot reels that are compatible with a standard communication protocol and/or connection system for installing or removing devices controlled by a master gaming controller. A slot reel gaming peripheral that is compatible with a standard communication protocol and/or connection system may reduce the number of types of motherboards that are needed for the gaming machine and may reduce the amount of maintenance time when a slot reel is replaced. Further, it would be desirable to have the slot reel gaming peripheral control some of its own functions rather than having all the functions controlled by the master gaming controller. This feature might reduce the load on the computational resources of the master gaming controller.
This invention addresses the needs indicated above by providing a slot reel peripheral having a slot reel, a drive mechanism and a peripheral controller. Using a standard communication protocol such as USB (Universal Serial Bus), the peripheral controller is configured to communicate with one or more master gaming controllers or other slot reel peripherals via a peripheral connection. The peripheral controller may drive the slot reel from position to position by operating the drive mechanism and may send operating instructions to other slot reel peripherals with peripheral controllers. Further, the peripheral controller may control one or more specialized xe2x80x9cperipheral devicesxe2x80x9d (e.g., effects lights, back lights, bar code detectors, tampering sensors, position sensors, sound devices, electro-luminescent devices and stepper motors, etc. that perform specific functions of the slot reel peripheral).
One aspect of the present invention provides a slot reel peripheral that generally can be characterized as including (1) a drive mechanism, (2) a single slot reel that may be moved from position to position by the drive mechanism, (3) a peripheral controller that directly controls the drive mechanism and (4) a peripheral communication connection for connecting the peripheral controller to a master gaming controller. The drive mechanism controlled by the peripheral controller may be a stepper motor. Further, the peripheral controller may control a number of peripheral devices associated with the slot reel peripheral including effects lights, position sensors, bar code detectors, back lights, tampering sensors, sound devices and electro-luminescent devices. The peripheral controller may be connected to one or more of the peripheral devices via a peripheral interface. The peripheral controller includes a memory storing software for a communication protocol that allows communication with the peripheral devices via the peripheral interface.
In preferred embodiments, the peripheral controller includes a control microprocessor that controls communication over the peripheral communication connection. Also, the slot reel peripheral may include a hub comprising a number of peripheral communication connections. Through one or more of these peripheral connections the peripheral controller may communicate with other slot reel peripherals. The peripheral controller may have a non-volatile memory arranged to store configuration parameters specific to the slot reel peripheral and state history information of the slot reel peripheral. In one embodiment, the non-volatile memory might be used to store the configuration parameters needed to drive the slot reel using the drive mechanism including a moment of inertia of the slot reel, the size of the slot reel and one or more acceleration parameters.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a gaming machine that can generally be characterized as including (1) a master gaming controller that controls one or more games played on the gaming machine and (2) at least one slot reel peripheral. The slot reel peripheral should include (a) a drive mechanism, (b) a single slot reel that is moved from position to position by the drive mechanism, (c) a peripheral controller that directly controls the drive mechanism and (d) a peripheral communications connection connecting the peripheral controller to the master gaming controller. In preferred embodiments, the master gaming controller includes a memory storing software for (i) standard device identification protocol for at least some of the slot reel peripherals, (ii) device drivers for at least some of the slot reel peripherals and (iii) a communication protocol that allows communication with the slot reel peripherals via the peripheral communications connection. Further, the slot reel peripheral includes a memory storing software for a communication protocol that allows communication with the master gaming controller via the peripheral communication connection. As described above, the gaming machine may be a video slot machine.
In preferred embodiments, the slot reel peripheral may be configured to receive high-level instructions from the master gaming controller that do not specify precise control of the drive mechanism of the slot reel peripheral. Following the highlevel instructions, the peripheral controller of the slot reel peripheral receiving the high-level instructions may provide low-level instructions precisely controlling the operation of its drive mechanism. Further, one slot reel peripheral may be configured to send high-level instructions that do not specify precise control of the drive mechanism to a second slot reel peripheral. Following the high-level instructions, the peripheral controller of the second slot reel peripheral receiving the high-level instructions may provide low-level instructions precisely controlling the operation of its drive mechanism.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a gaming machine network including a slot reel peripheral and a plurality of gaming machines. The slot reel peripheral should include a drive mechanism and a single slot reel that is moved from position to position by the drive mechanism. Each gaming machine should include a master gaming controller that controls the slot reel peripheral and a peripheral communication connection configured to communicate with the slot reel peripheral. The slot reel peripheral may be configured to receive high-level instructions from the plurality of master gaming controllers that do not specify precise control of the drive mechanism of the slot reel peripheral. Following the high-level instructions, the peripheral controller of the slot reel peripheral may provide low-level instructions precisely controlling the operation of its drive mechanism.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method for controlling operation of a slot reel peripheral containing a single slot reel on a gaming machine. The method may include the steps of (1) receiving a high level instruction for controlling the slot reel peripheral from a first master gaming controller via a standard peripheral connection to a peripheral controller associated with the slot reel peripheral where the high level instruction does not precisely specify how the slot reel peripheral must perform an operation associated with the high level instruction, (2) converting the high level instruction to one or more low level operating instructions, at the peripheral controller, for controlling the operation of one or more peripheral devices provided with the slot reel peripheral and (3) controlling operation of the one or more peripheral devices with the low level operating instructions. In the a preferred embodiment, the method may also include the steps of (a) storing state history information in the slot reel peripheral specifying a recent operating state of the slot reel peripheral and (b) transmitting the stored state history information to the first master gaming controller. In another embodiment the slot reel peripheral may receive a high level instruction for controlling the slot reel peripheral from a second slot reel peripheral via a standard peripheral connection or from a second master gaming controller different from the first master gaming controller.
These and other features of the present invention will be presented in more detail in the following detailed description of the invention and the associated figures.